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World March for Peace and Nonviolence
December 2nd, The March comes to Los Angeles. Details tba.
Notes for the October 179th Activists Meeting in Mar Vista at the St Andrew's Lutheran Church, 10 am to 11 am.
We had a good meeting with Randy Ziglar, Madelon Logue, David Turner, Gary Herbertson, Philip Freeman, Marguerite Spears, Leland Stewart and the spirit of Elizabeth Stewart, recently passed away, and Roger Eaton and Bob McCloskey.
We had a four point agenda:
- LA / Tehran Dialog leading ot a World Cities Dialog for Mayors for Peace Cities. Roger has set up the dialog and we are aiming at a mid-November meeting of persons interested in restarting the relationship between LA and Tehran at a people to people level. This will be a Peace and Friendship dialog, not aimed at the democracy in Iran matter. There are many reasons why this dialog may not get off the ground. In any case, Roger said he would be going forward with the World Cities Dialog of Mayors for Peace Cities to send a message to the 2010 NPT Conference.
- Our local Mayors for Peace Campaign. Roger passed on word from Bob Kalayjian that he will be continuing the Mayors for Peace Campaign in the Long Beach area. Also, Roger reported that he had made contact with Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward, who will help sign Manhattan Beach up - we need someone from MB. Marguerite has relative in MB, Roger to follow up with Marguerite. Roger and Margaret Lindgren will handle Culver City. Bob said he could help with an introduction to Tom Camarillo, former Pres. CC Dems. Randy reported he and Chris are continuing to press the case with Mayor Genser of Santa Monica. Mayor Genser has promised to respond, but if not, then the next step is to get a couple more people from the Unitarian Church to go back to City Council with Chris and each take their one minute to press the Mayor. We think that a constant friendly pressure is the way forward.
- World March for Peace and Nonviolence. Philip Freeman reported that the World March group in Los Angeles plans to keep in action after the end of the march and would be very interested in joining the LAANDC. He said latest plans are for a double decker bus to tour the city on Dec 2. Roger volunteered to put up an LA World March page on our LAANDC web page and post the latest details there. The page is now up athttp://laandc.org/worldmarch.htm.
- It looks very like Roger will be moving to SF with Sandy to care for his 91 year old mother. This is not quite sure yet, but we should begin to plan on it. So the question is how do we keep LAANDC going? It is a valuable network, but needs local coordination and input to maintain itself. Bob suggested we target our next major downtown action for the May 2010 NPT conference, and that we not only keep the activists group going, but enlarge it by looking to bring several hundred people to a vigil or even civil disobedience action. The Peace Prize gives us more wind, so we need to take it up while we have it. This idea will be the major item on the agenda for our next meeting, on Nov 21.
Notes for the September 19th Activists Meeting in Mar Vista at the St Andrew's Lutheran Church, 10 am to 11 am.
We had a small rather informal meeting this month with three members of the Southern California Federation of Scientists in attendance, Shel Plotkin, Bob Ferber and Walt McCarron. Also Madelon Logue and Roger Eaton of the Unity-and-Diversity World Council and Bob Kalayjian from Long Beach First Congregational.
Roger Eaton reported good news - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has signed the Cities Appeal We thank Mayor Villaraigosa! Of course we are going ahead with the Mayors for Peace project. Santa Monica, Culver City and more are on our list. Bob Kalayjian will be working the Long Beach area. Mayors for Peace is targeting an additional 2000 cities by the 2010 NPT Conference. We will help make it happen both locally and with our World Cities Dialog.
Shel Plotkin of SCFS will look at the important Securing our Survival (SOS): The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. If it seems appropriate, he and SCFS will prepare a writeup about this important volume which we can distribute to our email list.
Recent Events of Interest
September 12th Global Forum on Peace and Security
Roger Eaton spoke suggesting an LA / Tehran Dialog as the nucleus of a World Cities Dialog to send a message from the Cities of the World to the 2010 NPT Conference. A committee to pursue the dialog is expected to come out of this event. More on that when there is more to report.
August 6th Long Beach First Congregational Never Again Event
The commemoration under an amazing 1000 paper cranes was very moving, and it made the Press Telegram
with photos. "Robert Kalayjian can't support dropping bombs on children." the article begins. Neither can we!
August 9th Downtown Never Again Event
We had 100+ participants at the peak, which was good - double the 50 minimum
that we were thinking. The event itself, all three parts, at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist
Temple, on the Mindful Walk, and then the music and speeches at City Hall, all were outstanding.
Moving Commemoration at the Temple, very pleasant and at least somewhat mindful walk through
Little Tokyo - thank you Sande - and great speeches. The event was written up by Michael Collins
at the EnviroReporter
Blog with photos.
And we had more good photos from Roberta Eidman,
Maryam Gueramian
and Peter Rashkin.
Thank you all and many thanks to all who attended.
Notes for the August 15th LAANDC Activists meeting in Mar Vista at the St Andrew's Lutheran Church,
10 am to 11 am.
We had a good meeting with Bob McCloskey who headed up the August 9th event, Shel Plotkin and Walt McCarron of SCFS, Anthony Manousos of ICUJP, Madelon Logue and Gary Herbertson of UDC, longtime activists Randy Ziglar and Cris Gutierrez, and LAANDC Coordinator Roger Eaton. Apologies if anyone was missed.
Gary distributed an article from the Long Beach Press Telegram about the Hiroshima commemoration service he attended at Long Beach First Congregational which was arranged under 1000 floating cranes by Dr Robert Kalayjian.
We went over the August 9th event. We thought it turned out wonderfully in all three segments and we should do it again next year for sure. Bob reported that he counted over 100 at both the Buddhist Temple and City Hall. We spent in the neighborhood of $300+ mostly donated by Randy, Bob and Roger, so it was definitely low-budget. We had five great speakers, and a good emcee at City Hall. The Commemoration Service was very moving. The Mindful walk was perhaps not quite as mindful as it might have been, but still got good marks. Perhaps the World March Banner was not appropriate on a mindful walk. We might have thought of raising money at the City Hall site, but probably it was best as it was. Next year we will want to get in touch with Koyasan Temple much earlier. Rev Nobuko Miyoshi at the Higashi Honganji Temple was very welcoming and spoke movingly about the bombings and the lessons to be learned. But stilll, Koyasan will have its yearly commemoration and it doesn't make sense to have two, so we should join the Koyasan commemoration and remember to thank Higashi Honganji again then.
We decided to raise $1000 for next year's event starting now. Shel offered an SCFS subsidiary account - donations will be tax deductible - checks made to SCFS earmarked for next year's Hiroshima/Nagasaki event. Cris will send U.S. postal service thank yous to the speakers and to Rev Nobuko Miyoshi and Sande Simpson, who led the silent walk.
Until December 2, our activists group will be dedicated to the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. The first of two World March events will be on October 2 at Santa Monica Beach, details tba. Cris reported she has contacted SM Mayor Ken Geyser, asking for his help signing up SM for Mayors for Peace. After December 2nd, it is our expectation that the World March - LA organization will hold together and will join our LAANDC coalition.
Roger reported that September 12th we will pursue our MfP LA/Tehran dialog at an event hosted by Lynn Crandall's Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery. The theme of the event will be "Iran's Democratic Movement: the Role of the Iranian Diaspora". Roger will present the LA / Tehran online dialog idea and spark a discussion about it. Looks like start up of the dialog will be later in September.
Apologies for the truncated notes.
Much has been happening and there has not been enough time to do justice to the
conference call and excellent in person meeting at St Andrews. There were
three main items handled. First what is shaping up to be a lovely August 9th
event with a Commemoration at the Higashi Honganji Temple in Little Tokyo
followed by a mindful walk to City Hall. Bring an umbrella to keep off the
fall out! A green umbrella for the Iranians if you have one. Then at City
Hall our excellent list of speakers will be: Interfaith Communities United for
Justice and Peace President Steve Rohde will be keynote speaker. Other
speakers include so far Reza Aslan, acclaimed author and religous scholar,
Rabbi Allen Freehling, Deputy Chief of Staff, LA Council District 6, Arin Ghosh,
UNA Pacific Chapter Youth Chair, and Congressional Candidate Marcy Winograd.
Mayor Villaraigosa has been invited and we have a couple more possibilities.
Download
Flyer. Second, we have decided to back the World March for Peace and Nonviolence as
our next couple of events after August 9th. This means we cannot spend our time
on the 1:00 PM August 22 protest at El Segundo Air Force Base.
(Download Flyer)
Stretched too thin. There will be two World March events, first October 2 at
Arlington West, just north of the Santa Monica Pier to mark the beginning of the
March on Gandhi's b'day in New Zealand, and then Dec 2, when the March comes to
Los Angeles. Planning for the October event will take place on Sunday August 2 at 3:00
PM. Contact rogereaton@earthlink.net (with "WORLD MARCH" in the subject line) for
details. Third, we are going to go ahead and try to make the LA / Tehran online dialog go
and continue our push to get the sister city link activated. We have information
that it might be dangerous for citizens of Tehran to participate, so we are going to
bill it as an "Inter-city Cultural Dialog". In the fine print we will mention that
if the dialog goes well, we will expand it to include all the Mayors for Peace cities,
and nuclear disarmament will be one of the preset topics for discussion each month.
Iran is strongly and officially in favor of global nuclear disarmament, and the people
of Iran agree as far as we know - which is not the same as saying they agree to
halting the Iranian progress towards nuclear power. If I missed something important, please let me know.
Notes for the July 15th conference call and the July 18th
LAANDC Activists meeting in Mar Vista at the St Andrew's Lutheran Church,
10 am to 11 am.
Notes for the June 20th
LAANDC Activists meeting in Mar Vista at the St Andrew's Lutheran Church,
10 am to 11 am.
We had an excellent meeting with about a dozen participants, Walt McCarron and Bob Furber of SCFS, Martha Madison and Daryl Seybold of Westside Progressives, Anthony Manousos of ICUJP, Marguerite Spears of Global Solutions, Madelon Logue, Leland and Elizabeth Stewart of UDC, longtime activists Randy Ziglar and Chris Gutierrez, and LAANDC Coordinator Roger Eaton. Apologies if anyone was missed.
We began with introductions and announcement of the June 28th Westside Progressives Picnic at Mar Vista Park (which has since been held and was a great success, btw). Also, our website at http://laandc.org is now available as a working resource for the Coalition. Please take a look. Midnight June 28, 29th there will be a Vandenberg ICBM Launch Protest - this has since come off successfully with 30 participants.
Roger reported on the Never Again Sermon Series that we are encouraging for August 6 through August 9th. ICUJP has agreed to send out 200 US postal service mailings to clergy in the LA area asking for participation in the series. He also made a presentation to the South Coast Interfaith Council Social Concerns Committee and they are interested to help, so when we have the ICUJP letter, we will see if something similar can be arranged for SCIC. Carl Farrington, is leaving the SCIC Social Concerns Committee for the Bay Area to be closer to family. He will be missed by all here in LA. Jane Affonso will be our liason so we will continue to have a strong support from that quarter.
The Mayors for Peace campaign has had a couple of good successes. Bob Kalayjian and a group of supporters in the Long Beach area have signed up Signal Hill for both the MfP roster and the Cities Appeal, and Long Beach, which was already on the MfP list, now also supports the Cities Appeal. Roger went downtown LA to City Hall and met with Jim Clarke, aide to Mayor Villaraigosa. Jim will help us get LA listed for the Cities Appeal. Randy Ziglar will work with Irv Sarnoff to enlist Santa Monica, and Andre Graham will team with Roger to get Culver City onboard.
There has been some excitement generated about our idea of a Dialog with Tehran. This is still very much in the exploratory phase. The trip downtown to Jim Clarke's office was a group of four: Lynn Crandall of the Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery, Rebecca Tobias of the Wallenberg Institute, both participating organizations in our Coalition, Maryam Gueramian of the IMAN Center Young Professionals Group and Roger Eaton. We had two subjects - the Cities Appeal and the possibility of reactivating the LA / Tehran Sister Cities Link. Lynn and Maryam have been working on that reactivation and we met with a very good reception from Jim Clarke. See the notes of our meeting with him at http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc7ncx85_696srdgqg8. Since then we have heard from Jim that City Hall is moving on this reactivation, but cautiously because of events in Iran. At a recent Levantine Center Salon on Iran, there was a fascinating and intense presentation and discussion with many LA Iranians taking part. Roger presented himself as from the LAANDC and interested in the LA / Tehran Sister Cities reactivation. He asked the chief presenter, who had been in Iran for the election, if people in Tehran would be interested in reactivating the LA / Tehran link and both she (the presenter) and others who were there were very positive in response. It is a fact that many Tehranians have relatives in LA, so there is a lot of interest both ways. You can help by phoning your City Council Person. Here is the list: Ed Reyes (213)-473-7001, Dennis P. Zine (213)-473-7003, Tom LaBonge (213)-473-7004, Paul Koretz (213)-473-7005, Tony Cardenas (213)-473-7006, Richard Alarcon (213)-473-7007, Bernard Parks (213-473-7008, Jan Perry (213)-473-7009, Herb J Wesson, Jr (213)-473-7010, Bill Rosendahl (213)-473-7011, Greig Smith (213)-473-7012, Janice Hahn (213)-473-7015, Jose Huizar (213)-473-7014, Eric Garcetti (213)-473-7013
Most of our discussion was about the August 9th downtown event. Again this was seen as an exciting prospect that we can make into a success. We are going to be aiming for 200 participants, and happy if we get 50 to 100. There will be three parts to the event, which will be from 3pm to 5pm on Sunday August 9th. First a solemn commemoration of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings probably at a Buddhist Temple in the downtown area. Then a silent sidewalk march to Pershing Square where there will be a rally and at least two speeches for nuclear disarmament. We are thinking an Iranian Muslim Religious Scholar, and a Jewish Rabbi, perhaps also Iranian. This way we tie the event also into our Tehran Dialog push. There will be a committee meeting to work on the event, Sunday July 5th at 12:30 for lunch at Roger Eaton's place near Washington Blvd and Inglewood Blvd. Call 310 390 5220 to rsvp and get the exact address.
May 27 Conference Call
Our May conference call was smaller than it has been with only 6 participants and we missed some of the excellent input we have been getting from those who did not make the call. Nevertheless, we did get through the agenda and made important progress.
Participating were:
Cara Bautista of the Campaign
for a Nuclear Weapons Free World
Lynn Crandall, Director USC IGM Art Gallery
Angela Keaton of Antiwar.com
Leland Stewart of Unity-and-Diversity World Council
Rick Wayman of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Roger Eaton of the LA Area Nuclear Disarmament Coalition, 310 390 5220
* Mayors for Peace - Lynn offered to link us to the League of Women Voters, which has a Peace committee. With LWV participation, we can sign up all the LA area cities. Roger will follow up with Lynn.
* Never Again Campaign - Roger, with Carl Farrington's help, has connected with the ICUJP Religious Outreach Committee and it looks pretty sure ICUJP will adopt the campaign. Also thanks to Carl, Roger will address the South Coast Interfaith Council Social Concerns Committee about the campaign and the Mayors for Peace project.
* Rick Wayman from NAPF reported on the NPT PrepCom that he attended in New York. There is good news -- things are moving - people came out of the conference feeling optimistic, though don't be surprised if the 2010 NPT conference does not adopt the goal of nuclear disarmament by 2020. One particular item of interest is the Abolition 2000 Flame. This Flame will be part of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence later this year. The use of the Flame as a symbol of nuclear disarmament comes from the Hiroshima Flame, first ignited from the embers of the Hiroshima bombing and kept lit all this time, not to be extinguished until the last nuclear weapon is destroyed. http://www.theworldmarch.org/index.php?lang=eng - The flame is something we can use possibly in August and / or at the June 28th picnic. We could light the flame at the picnic as a symbol for nuclear disarmament.
* Cara reported that the focus is on the Nuclear Posture Review in which
the U.S. will be totally revamping this year. Also the Campaign for a
Nuclear Weapons Free World is going to be sending out an esurvey soon.
Those organizations not yet signed up with the Campaign, please do so.
* Build participation in the online dialog. Rick suggested we needed to improve the dialog software. This discussion has been continued in a followup phone call, and Rick's good suggestions will be acted upon with a high priority. One major need is to be able to take input in other languages besides English.
* Tehran it turns out is a Sister City of Los Angeles and a fellow member of the Mayors for Peace cities. We will go ahead and build on this double bond. We need to go through the Sister Cities organization - Lynn has offered to help with that. Two directions: 1) set up two-way exchanges with the delegations attending a nuclear disarmament forum in each city and 2) set up the online dialog to exchange messages between Tehran and LA on the subject of nuclear disarmament. We should proceed on point number 1 and wait on point number 2 until we can handle Farsi and the software is generally up to standards. Then we can build on success in the LA / Tehran online Dialog to win backing of the Mayors for Peace NGO for the idea of signing up one person to the dialog from every MfP city and electing a message to the 2010 NPT conference.
* We will have a table for the June 28th picnic in Mar Vista Park, noon to 4pm, and get the word out about the picnic. If we can manage it, we will light the Flame.
* Organize a commemorative event Sunday Aug 9 downtown, Pershing Square? with a Survivor, perhaps in conjunction with the Japanese American National Museum, perhaps with Mayor Villaraigosa if that is possible. Perhaps with a march from the Museum to Pershing Square. This item is right in line with the elected message from the dialog - see below. Bob McCloskey has indicated he will help. The next step is to get the committee together.
* Leland offered to write a letter to the DPRK about their latest nuclear test. We will send this to their UN delegation.
So that was our progress. Next conference call will be early in July. And, hint, hint, we will do even better if we have more participation.
Let's make it happen!
-- Roger Eaton
LAANDC Coordinator
310 390 5220
May 16 Activist Meeting, 10am to 11am at St Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mar Vista - notes by Roger Eaton
Our Westside Progressives contingent couldn't make it, but we still manages to have another good meeting with 8 or 10 attendees.
* The idea of an event downtown on Sunday August 9th is on hold, perhaps permanently. We are stretched too thin, and to make that happen we will need someone new to take the lead. Any volunteers? Seriously.
* Getting the Never Again word out. Roger offered to attend ICUJP taking a good letter from Carl Farrington - see online doc at laandc.org/dox/May2009CarltoICUJP.doc. (I did this and it looks very much like the ICUJP religious outreach committee will take up the Never Again project in a big way. More news as this develops. Thanks to Carl for his excellent introduction.)
* Sign up Mayors for Peace in the LA area. Bob Kalayjian is taking the lead on this one. He has prepared a Mayors for Peace Campaign kit, which is available via our Mayors for Peace project page at http://laandc.org/mayorsforpeace.htm. Our aim is to get 15 to 20 new cities signed up by August 9th, and to persuade the existing MfP cities to sign the Cities Appeal for the 2020 Vision Campaign. Randy and Irv will take on Santa Monica. Andre and Roger will go for Culver City. Roger will continue to work on getting Mayor Villaraigosa to sign the Cities Appeal.
* Sunday, June 28, noon to 4pm, laandc will have a table at the joint Westside Progressives and Unity-and-Diversity Progressive Picnic at Mar Vista Park (Palms Blvd between McLaughlin & Sawtelle). If anyone would like to speak or for more info, please contact Lillian Laskin at luluinla@yahoo.com
* We have raised $500 with $200 from WP and $200 from UDC towards the website plus $50 from SCFS and a private donation of $50. This gives us $100 towards our Never Again mailing expenses. Those participating organizations with real treasuries, who have not already donated, please consider a $50 donation.
* Our new website laandc.org by Daryl Seybold is coming along - another couple weeks and the basics should be in place
* For our letterhead, there was an ok to list WP and UDC at the bottom as co-founding organizations. This will need to be ok'd by the conference call as well.
* The letters to Abdul Minty and President Obama have been sent - no word back yet.
* Hanford dump turns out to be unsuitable for nuclear weapons disposal because the area is too geologically unstable to keep plutonium there. Info from Tom Carpenter, Exec Director HanfordChallenge.org.
Roger Eaton
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